Having trouble finding an Investment Grade Bond – Intermediate fund? Fidelity Corporate Bond Fund (FCBFX) is a possible starting point. FCBFX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

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FCBFX is one of many Investment Grade Bond – Intermediate funds to pick from. Investment Grade Bond – Intermediate funds focus on the middle part of the curve, generally with bonds that usually mature in more than three years but less than 15 years. Fixed income instruments with this maturity level usually have medium duration risk, but they also compensate investors with a modest yield, at least when compared to their short maturity counterparts. Additionally, the focus on investment grade will make funds here safer, but yields will be lower than in the junk bond category.

Fidelity is based in Boston, MA, and is the manager of FCBFX. Fidelity Corporate Bond Fund debuted in May of 2010. Since then, FCBFX has accumulated assets of about $972.05 million, according to the most recently available information. The fund’s current manager is a team of investment professionals.

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 0.95%, and it sits in the middle third among its category peers. If you’re interested in shorter time frames, do not dismiss looking at the fund’s 3 -year annualized total return of -1.62%, which places it in the middle third during this time-frame.

It is important to note that the product’s returns may not reflect all its expenses. Any fees not reflected would lower the returns. Total returns do not reflect the fund’s [%] sale charge. If sales charges were included, total returns would have been lower.

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When looking at a fund’s performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. The standard deviation of FCBFX over the past three years is 9.39% compared to the category average of 13.31%. The fund’s standard deviation over the past 5 years is 8.99% compared to the category average of 14.1%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

FCBFX carries a beta of 0.99, meaning that the fund is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. With this in mind, it has a positive alpha of 1.8, which measures performance on a risk-adjusted basis.

Costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing, and particularly as competition heats up in this market. And all things being equal, a lower cost product will outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, so taking a closer look at these metrics is key for investors. In terms of fees, FCBFX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.45% compared to the category average of 0.89%. So, FCBFX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.

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